"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers." -Richard Feynman

This is a comparison of two beta products; things are going to change before either organization suggests the general public try them out.Hopefully some of the problems/quirks will get worked out in the process.

Round 1: Tabbed Browsing

The one feature that got me hooked on Mozilla-then-Phoenix-then-Firebird-then-Firefox (they had some naming issues) was tabbed browsing.For the last few people who haven’t already found out for themselves, tabs are a simple concept that help to keep life (or at least your web pages) organized. For the unfamiliar, tabs essentially let you open more than one webpage in a single browser window and flip back and forth between the various pages using tabs at the top of the browser.For anyone that has more than a few pages up at once this is a very handy feature.

On the topic of tabs, Microsoft has finally done the intelligent thing and copied the Mozilla/Firefox behavior and look (this has been a very effective strategy for Bill and compatriots over the years).

Internet Explorer with tabs? Si, and it isn’t a hack! Snazzy site, no?

The new beta of Firefox adds a slick feature to its tabbed experience.You can now reorder tabs by dragging them around.IE7 doesn’t support this, though they may very well by the time it hits release quality.

Round 2: Look & Feel

IE7 has gotten the more dramatic change in this department, but other than things being moved around it still isn’t anything to write home about.The button icons are a little different and there is a new IE icon.If you are comfortable with how IE6 feels and works, then the final version of IE7 should make you feel right at home.

Firefox 1.5 Beta 1

For version 1.5 the Firefox team hasn’t made any made any changes to the way the browsers looks or works.It still looks fine and feels great.